Oklahoma prof offers insight into why Obama said ISIL is not Islamic

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In his speech to the American people last night outlining his strategy (finally!) for combating ISIL, President Obama made a statement which has been cited as an example of his stupidity, ignorance, treason, or deceit: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim.

How can ISIL not be “Islamic” when Islamic is the first word in the acronym? Twitchy gives a short round up of some of the Twitter reactions to this statement, which are overwhelmingly negative.
This rhetoric is not a sign of cowardliness. It is a sign that the war on terror is–at its core–public relations work.Whatever you might think of Obama, he is intelligent. He understands quite well that ISIL presents itself and believes itself to be the true followers of Islam on a divinely ordained mission to create an Islamic State. So then is he lying?

I believe the simplest and most accurate answer is: No. He’s simply choosing a definition of Islam that he knows will reduce terrorist recruitment and damage ISIL’s rhetoric. There is nothing that ISIL would like more than to see Western powers, particularly the US, openly declare war on Islam. And whatever you think about Islam, it’s not hard to see why this would be such a successful recruitment tool. If you believe every superpower in the world is out to destroy your people, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to justify horrific acts of violence. Obviously these acts are never justified. But it’s easier for the radicalized Muslim to imagine they’re so when believing that nearly the entire world is bent on slaughtering him and his family.

This is exactly the narrative sold in terrorist propaganda: The US/West is out to kill Muslims and steal their lands and goods. This is why Bush famously (or infamously, in some circles) called Islam a “religion of peace.” Arguing such tactics don’t follow true Islam delegitimizes the motives for Islamic terrorism. This PR strategy is so effective that Bin Laden considered changing his organization’s name to escape it.

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